Star Trek Discovery's episode 3 was a step in the right direction towards making the show a little more 'Star Trek', but it still has a long way to go. It worries me that the Klingon War seems like it'll dominate the series - don't get me wrong, I liked the Dominion War, but it was the focal point of a show based around a space station. Discovery's a ship, I hope they try to keep the strong themes of exploration that were core to TOS, TNG and Voyager.

I've heard that theory, although it doesn't quite gel with some details we know about Section 31's origins going all the way back to the birth of the Federation itself, at the end of the Enterprise era.

That doesn't mean the ship isn't working with or under S31's banner though, that's certainly a possibility.

S1E3 spoiler:Captain Lorca really didn't have a Starfleet feel to me. Just a lot of red flags in general going on there, and I find the whole 'Starfleet gave me carte blanche so I get to recruit a criminal sentenced to life imprisonment' storyline to come across really hand-wavy. Hopefully they delve into Starfleet's feelings on that more later.

I have hope the show will grow, they're all a little rocky for the first few episodes (although I thought Voyager started pretty smoothly). But right now I'm searching for the warm familiarities of what makes Star Trek unique, and it's...just not there yet.

Twitch is very weird. So my account got deactivated earlier this year for inactivity, something they never bothered to inform me of until I raised a support request asking why I couldn't log in, and the username's been unavailable ever since. Or so I thought. Apparently, while I can't sign up for a new account with my username, I can sign up for a similar one and then change my name to the one I want (that is "unavailable" according to the signup page). So, long story short, I have my twitch account back (or, a new account with the same name, which amounts to the same thing). Yay, I can play Minecraft again!

Long story. I've only played modded since mid-2011-or-so, so have been a long time user of the Feed The Beast mod packs, who originally used their own custom launcher. They moved to using the Curse launcher around Minecraft 1.9 (iirc) which meant they didn't have to moderate a huge slew of user-compiled modpacksin addition to their own, while giving users the ability to essentially plug in any mods they wanted and remove any they didn't through an idiot-proof UI. Unfortunately, it meant trying to install modpacks without the curse client became a huge headache, so I didn't have much choice in that regard, and moved to the Curse client. Earlier this year, Curse partnered with Twitch, and merged their launcher into the Twitch desktop app (to the point it updated automatically to the Twitch App), so logging into Curse to download/update modpacks and launch Minecraft required you to login to the Twitch app and merge your Curse account into your Twitch account before it would let you download or install anything. At which point I discovered my Twitch account had been deactivated.

Tldr: the mod distributor I've used for years went through a few different launchers, eventually ending up on the Twitch desktop app for some reason. It's a very weird sequence of events, but it's definitely way better than the old "shove mods into a folder and spend days debugging potential conflicts" method from Minecraft's beta days.

Fair enough! In case you have problems in future, if you already have the pack downloaded you can launch it through the base Minecraft launcher without needing Twitch, you just have to add a profile that points to the right Forge version and install folder.

Good morning all! First-time TAY poster here.
I bought a Switch over the weekend. I have to say, the time I have spent with it has been one of the most enjoyable experiences I have ever had with new hardware.

Thinking back to when I purchased all of my consoles, in the last 20 years I was never truly 'wowed' like I am this time with the Switch. The better graphics, hype of the new release, awesome launch games etc. all of course made them a thrill to play for the first time, but the Switch is different. The hybrid nature of the console is a feature that you use for the first couple of times and truly see why it is such a game-changer (pun intended, I suppose lol).

I am currently playing Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (great game). This is really a game I would primarily play in handheld mode and I do for the most part. As it gets late however, I find myself wanting to lay in bed and play for a fairly prolonged period - here using it in handheld mode makes me lose blood in my arms and get pins and needles (just like the Vita) so I find myself wanting to let my arms relax.

In my room is a projector so I drop the switch in the dock, play with split joy-cons and lay arms spread in complete and utter comfort as I turn what was a portable game only a moment ago, into a grand 120” console experience. It’s just such a smooth transition -the kind of moment that instantly sells you on Nintendo’s philosophy and direction of the hardware.

Just wanted to get that out there.

Anyone have any good recommendations for the Switch – perhaps something not so well-known?

Played the demo and it was great. I think it's a bit slow as far as puzzle games go for my taste (I'm a sucker for fast paced action 'Portal' style puzzle games) but it was a great concept. Although I didn't click with it, I would highly recommend it.

To be honest the system's been an utter wash for me so far. It's great hardware but none of the games have grabbed me for more than an hour or so. I don't even have the system plugged in right now, I'm just not playing it. Hoping that'll change but the 3rd Party uptake has been very slow as usual for a Nintendo system. And to be fair, it's not that the games are bad. Apparently I just hate fun or something.

Obviously the big games on the system aside from Mario & Rabbids are Breath of the Wild and Splatoon 2, but you know that. Here's some less high-profile releases you might want to take a look at:

Puyo Puyo Tetris is good fun. Horrible dub though.

There's lots of indies which you can get on other platforms as well, but are worth checking if you haven't played them yet.

The version of Shovel Knight on Switch is pretty decent - has a bunch of added content. If you haven't ever played Cave Story the Switch port is meant to be pretty good.

If you grew up with Sega stuff at all, you might want to check out Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap. It's a beautiful modern remake of the old Sega Master System Wonder Boy in Monster World.

I had a lot of fun with Kamiko, but it's pretty simple, kind of a stripped-down classic Legend of Zelda-like.

Have heard a lot of good things about Steamworld Dig 2 and everyone is raving about Golf Story.

RPGs are pretty thin on the system right now, but Disgaea 5 isn't too bad. I Am Setsuna might appeal maybe if you want a 16-bit styled game, though I wasn't big into it.

Looking forward the big games for the rest of the year are Fire Emblem Warriors (Musou / Dynasty Warriors with FE characters, October release), Mario Odyssey (3D platformer, October) and Xenoblade 2 (Open-world RPG, December).

I'm personally looking to also pick up Nights of Azure 2 but that is a *very* niche and specific-interest title. :) Rime also looks very interesting but the switch release is a bit too expensive to take a risk on IMO.

Leading up to the launch of the Switch, I feared that 3rd party support was going to be the downfall of the system. 6 months later I find myself pleasantly surprised by the comments and support that the big publishers are starting to show. I mean, I never in my wildest dream imagined I would be able to play L.A. Noire, Wolfenstein II and Doom on the Switch. As a PC player I would obviously prefer these games with top setting and MnKB, but I feel compelled to purchase these games as a show of support for these kinds of releases going forward. I think it will go in this direction given the sheer success the Switch has already found sales-wise.

I fear third party support for the Switch may go the way of the early days of the Vita with half-baked versions of AAA titles (Arkham Origins: Blackgate, FIFA Legacy Edition, CoD Black Ops: Declassified) but these first signs for the Switch are promising.

For the sorts of games I really enjoy, Vita was amazing and continued to be until around about the point the Switch came out. But I like niche third-party stuff.

I really like the Switch hardware and I'm very hopeful the same sorts of games will make it to Switch (the fact that Gust is bringing over Nights of Azure 2 is a good sign IMO - that's a very niche, weird JRPG series). Not really interested in playing "AAA" western stuff on it at all, that's what I have a gaming PC and a PS4 for.

Unfortunately the bulk of the third party stuff I care for is still on 3DS or Vita.

I think we'll get a better idea what third party support is going to look like next year. It's taken them so long to stabilize the stock situation that I think some of the publishers have been hesitating, especially the big Japanese publishers since the Japan stock situation is still a nightmare (100+ people lining up every week for raffle tickets for the chance to buy the 5-10 systems each store gets...)

Haven't played Golf Story, but have played the other two. Between them, Oxenfree is very good, while Stardew Valley will consume your life, so... if you have the option of both, finish Oxenfree first, then start Stardew Valley; if you can only choose one, then if you're after a good story, play Oxenfree, or if you want something that's more pick-up-and-play and will last a few months, go for Stardew Valley.

I can't be fucked doing detailed looks at all this season's anime - especially when a lot is trash - but I thought I could at least mention the stuff so far that's caught my interest.

The good:Kino no Tabi - The Beautiful WorldThis is by far the show I was most interested in going into the season. The original 2003 anime was great. This time around we have higher production values and a new staff and cast. Assuming they do the novels justice this is definitely one of the ones to watch. The series should be basically episodic variations on a theme - "The world is not beautiful, therefore it is."

Children of the WhalesDidn't know much about this going in. Really interesting science fiction setting, where a bunch of people cling to an island (they call it the 'Mud Whale') which floats in a shifting sea of sand. The majority of the people on the island can use magic, but at the cost of severely reduced lifespan, with most dying in their 30s. While exploring another island they encounter, the main character meets a girl who apparently has no emotions. This one seems really interesting, fantastic setting and great art. Unfortunately it's Netflix-licensed which means you're either getting fansubs or waiting until next year or so when Netflix will shit it out in one big blob, by which point you won't even care because everyone will have seen the end and stopped caring.

Girl's Last TourRelaxing slice of life show with a really striking art style. Reminded me a bit of the chilled-out feel of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou or Aria, even. Which is weird because this seems to be about a pair of girls trying to eke out an existence in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Really liked this one.

Umaru-chan RSecond season of Umaru. Basically a slice of life comedy about a girl that basically pretends to be completely perfect... except at home she turns into a complete slob and basically plays video games and eats junk food constantly. The first season was a lot of fun and this looks to be more of the same, and it's been a long enough gap since season 1 that I feel like this won't outstay its welcome. Also, secret: the real reason to watch is Umaru's friend Ebina and the unintelligible but super cute Akita rural dialect she falls into when flustered.

The Okay:Blend SThis kind of reminds me of Working, in that it's basically a show about a bunch of crazy people working in a cafe. Main character wants to save up money so she can study abroad, but no one will hire her because she has an 'evil look' to her eyes. Ends up employed in a cafe run by a crazy italian, where the wait staff all take on some kind of daft anime stereotype, and she's the "sadistic" type that basically treats customers like trash, completely contrary to her actual personality. It seems like an enjoyable enough show but it might run out of steam fast, will have to see.

Konohana KitanCute show about a fox-girl who gets a job working at a hot springs Inn run by foxes. Kind of formulaic and you pretty much know exactly what you're going to get from it within the first few minutes but the art is cute, the characters are appealing and it all works. May not have much staying power.

Juuni TaisenI really didn't like the first episode of this, but I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt because it's adapted from a Nisioisin novel (Bakemonogatari, Katanagatari, Zaregoto) and his stuff is usually very well put together. I suspect the first episode may have been a fake-out as well, since the apparent protagonist is a complete piece of shit, which combined with the not very appealing character art is a lot of why I didn't enjoy the first episode much. Will see how it develops.

Hoozuki no Reitetsu S2The first season of this was a funny, low-budget comedy about the traditional Japanese underworld. The titular main character is basically the only Demon in hell that actually is good at his job, and basically keeps the place running. I'm a bit hesitant this time though as I think they've had a staff change. Budget has gone up. Didn't find it as amusing this time though. So dunno.

UQ HolderThis is a sequel to Mahou Sensei Negima, Ken Akamatsu's Love Hina follow-up that seemed to run forever. Sadly Negima didn't get good anime adaptations until Shaft took over, by which point it had grown way too big. I actually never finished the manga despite enjoying it a lot - must get around to it at some point. Anyway, this series literally opens with a "remember all these characters you liked... they're all fucking dead of old age fuck you here's the opening from the shitty old anime you hated". The main character is Negi's grandson or something and the only returning character at this point seems to be Evangeline (which isn't a surprise since she's an immortal vampire). The first episode of this was... bad.
Like, I was actually laughing at how stupid it was. But at the same time, I kind of don't mind because Negima was usually ridiculous as well. Going to watch this for a bit and see how it goes.

The Terrible:Imouto Sae Ireba IiNoped out of this in the first two minutes or so. Holy shit. Squick meter off the fucking scale. I'm told this opening bit might be a fake-out but I don't even care. It started in super-cringe territory (dude woken up by his completely butt-naked jailbait sister straddling him)
and then actually escalated from there. Nope nope nope. Fuck no.

Dies IraeSloppy mess. Utter nonsense. Couldn't follow a single thing that was going on, it's just completely all over the place. Maybe if you're a fan of the original material it's adapted from this might have made a lick of sense, but even if it did I'm not sure I'm up for it since the cast seems to be at least partially made up of literal Nazis lead by a SS captain or something?
I mean it's Japan so they're probably just "the uniform looks really sharp" Nazis not "gas all the jews" Nazis, but even so, in 2017 it seems super tone-deaf to be making this. But I don't even know what the fuck this is about for sure, it was so messy.

So I went to the EB Games Expo on Saturday, was pretty cool. I've never been to anything like that before, because to be honest i've never been that interested, especially after working for EB Games & my enthusiasm for games sorta went away after that.

The Expo, sold out, so there was something like 90-120 minute wait to play just about anything, unless you wanted to join the Minecraft comp, the retro consoles (stuff dating back to the Commodore 64) or the new Ashes cricket game. I mostly just wandered around looking at the cool shit that was on show. Ran into a few mates that I didn't know were going to be there, that was cool. There was a lot of pretty cool cosplay, still a lot of girls going as Suicide Squad's Harley Quinn.

I was a bit disappointed in the lack of PC stuff there, they had Razer, Logitech, ThermalTake & HP were there with their Omen line up which they were running Overwatch off of for comps. Other than that, the Nintendo booth was probably the coolest looking one of them all, they actually put effort into it and even though it was busy there, it wasn't too hard to get to try something if you wanted.

The EB Games Megastore, had some really good bargains, but alas I found nothing I wanted :( I was hoping for Fallout merch, but by the time I got to get in there it was all but gone it seemed. Ah well!

Only annoying aspect was the booth from National Paintball Fields. They actually tried to bully me into getting one of their package deals. To which I told them, no. But they wouldn't listen so I was all "Okay let me go find my mates & i'll be back" and just walked off & never returned.

Might go again next time if it's here on the Gold Coast, but a larger venue would be nice. Which would mean Brisbane for it sadly.

So news from the Oculus event, a new standalone headset for US$199 that is like the Samsung gear but you don't need a phone. Sounds promising for seated VR and a good entry level price point.
Oculus Rift with Touch controllers now US$399 retail price (AUD $520ish) which puts it at around the price of a PSVR, and a new wireless high end headset coming next year.
Was hoping for more, but the $199 unit looks reasonable for maybe getting VR off the ground a bit.

Having a stab at playing the steam market... When PUBG held their Gamescom tournament in August, you could purchase (using in game battle points) "Gamescom crates" that had cosmetic clothing items. The crates were similar to Team Fortress 2 or CSGO where you could earn the crates in game, but had to purchase a key from Steam to open it.

At the time, I had enough points to grab four of them. When Gamescom was over, and were no longer available in game, they were about $4USD on the market. Within a few days, there was almost 200,000 of them on the market and the price dived to around $2USD. I listed my four for $3.50 and forgot about them.

I got an email last week that someone had purchased them, and noted the price had come back up, almost to $3.75 again with only about 45,000 crates on the market now. I had $40USD credit sitting on my steam account, so I've bought 10 of the crates, and I'm hoping I can hold onto them as the numbers dwindle further, and I might end up making a bit of money in time for the Halloween sale in a few weeks.

Or I've spent all my available credit on nothing and have thrown it against the wall... We'll see.

So I just saw my favourite dog gear brand EzyDog is running a competition to win their products every year for life, which is pretty neat. So naturally I entered Chilli, would be awesome if you guys could throw a vote our way! http://woobox.com/stgz6h/gallery/GplEo9UmaoM

Also they're a local company to me, so it would be even more cool if we won!